Strange Things Did Happen Here
by kdubs685
Summary: What you see here, what you do here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here. This is the story of Katniss and Peeta in 1940s Oak Ridge, Tennessee.


For Vi – She and her sisters were war heroes in their own right and my earliest feminist examples. Happy birthday, the party's not the same without you.

* * *

_"In the woods, as I lay on the ground and looked up into the sky, there came to me a voice as loud and as sharp as thunder. The voice told me to sleep with my head on the ground for 40 nights and I would be shown visions of what the future holds for this land...And I tell you, Bear Creek Valley someday will be filled with great buildings and factories, and they will help toward winning the greatest war that ever will be. And there will be a city on Black Oak Ridge and the center of authority will be on a spot middle-way between Sevier Tadlock's farm and Joe Pyatt's Place. A railroad spur will branch off the main L&N line, run down toward Robertsville and then branch off and turn toward Scarborough. Big engines will dig big ditches and thousands of people will be running to and fro. They will be building things and there will be great noise and confusion and the earth will shake. I've seen it. It's coming." –John Hendrix (1865-1915)_

**August, 1943**

"You want anything else?" Katniss asks the stranger as she sets the bowl of Greasy Sae's special mystery stew on the table with a thunk.

"That'll just about do it," the man with the unnerving grey eyes—almost the same shade as her own—replies gruffly.

"You want a refill on your coffee before I clock out?" she asks. The only thing Katniss has learned about the man over the past three days he has frequented Sae's during her shifts is that he takes decaf for his third cup of coffee—which he hasn't had yet this morning—and that he slips something from a hip flask into it when he thinks nobody's watching.

The man grunts in approval before pushing a lock of dark, dirty hair from his eyes, "You getting off early."

It's more of a statement than a question and Katniss pauses to fill his mug, careful to leave headspace for his preferred brand of sweetener, before responding. "I've got personal things to attend to," she says, appraising the man. "What brings you to Seamsboro, anyway? I know you're not from around here."

"What makes you say that?" The man takes the flask from his shabby tweed jacket and pours a bit into the steaming cup, careful to keep the tremor in his hand from spilling any of the clear liquor.

Katniss snorts derisively. "Because I've lived here my whole life and I know every single person in this town."

"I'm here on business."

Katniss glances from the man's unclean hair to his frayed blazer. "What kind of business?"

"The personal kind," he retorts, grey eyes flashing.

The bell above the front door jingles, alerting Katniss to a new customer. Her eyes dart to the front of the restaurant where she spots familiar broad shoulders and neatly-combed blond waves. Peeta Mellark greets her with a tentative smile, gesturing to Sae's afternoon pie delivery in his right hand by way of explanation, as he shifts off the cane in his left. She quickly breaks eye contact, shifting her focus past his shoulder, and nods curtly before turning back to the table in front of her.

"If you're done mooning, Sweetheart, I'd like my check please."

Katniss huffs in response and totals up the stranger's bill before leaving it on the table and stalking through the swinging doors that lead back to the kitchen.

"Pies are here," she announces. "Not sure why the baker insists on sending his son on that leg when he's got the Cartwright girl working for him."

Sae snorts knowingly as she wipes her hands on the dingy towel thrown over her shoulder, preparing to head to the front of house to pay the man. "You going out this afternoon? Pantry's getting low."

Katniss knows Sae used the last of the organs from the buck she'd shot a few days ago in this morning's stew and she thinks about how empty her own refrigerator at home is due to the scant rations. "Yeah, I was going to go later this afternoon. I've got to leave now so I can make it to Philadelphia for Prim's induction ceremony," she replies, swiftly removing and folding the apron from her waist.

"I can't believe that little girl is going to be a cadet nurse," Sae says, clicking her tongue, "Oh well, we've all got to do our part for the war effort and at least it will make things easier on you."

Katniss nods mutely as she grabs her bag and the keys to her father's old Ford truck as she makes her way out the back door.

"Give my love to Duck," she hears Sae call behind her.

Katniss watches the rows of young women in their pristine grey wool suits, with red trim at the shoulders and badges identifying their allegiance to the Cadet Nurse Corps, as they march up Broad Street. As Katniss spots her sister in the crowd of about two hundred young women, a vice-like tightness takes hold of her heart and she has to remind herself that this is what Prim wants.

Prim looks smart in her suit, with her fine blonde hair neatly braided and pinned in a sophisticated knot that reminds Katniss of their mother. The look on Prim's face, however, is more reminiscent of the one she'd worn the time Katniss had first brought Lady, their goat, home for her sister. The memory makes Katniss want to weep.

More than anything, Prim wants to feel as though she's contributing to the war effort, especially now that her childhood sweetheart Rory Hawthorne has been deployed to Europe. The tightness in Katniss' chest worsens and she tries not to think of the baker's son who returned home after shrapnel destroyed the lower part of his left leg around the last time she'd heard from her best friend—and Rory's brother—Gale.

_She gets an education and room and board and **food**,_ Katniss reminds herself. _We're lucky_. She closes her eyes tightly to keep the tears forming along her lash line from spilling over and reminds herself that the odds are slim that Prim would ever end up overseas on assignment in this god-forsaken war. No, more than likely, she'll be providing essential civilian support stateside when she finishes nursing school. And even though Katniss knows this to be true, she can't help but think that the odds have never been in her favor.

Katniss pulls the rumbling truck up to her house, shifting out of gear before releasing the clutch and killing the engine. She's about to get out when she notices the stranger from Sae's is occupying her mother's wooden rocker on their dilapidated porch. Reaching over to the passenger side glove box, she removes the old Colt .45 her father always kept for safety. Katniss tucks the barrel into the waistband of her trousers before getting out of the vehicle and striding toward the house.

"How'd you know where I live?" she asks the stranger darkly, hand hovering near the handgun at her waist.

"There isn't a lot I don't know about you, Sweetheart," he responds snidely. "And just how was _Little Duck_ this afternoon?"

The words are barely out of the man's mouth before Katniss has the Colt trained on him, safety disengaged. "Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know about my sister?" Katniss spits out.

"You don't get to know who I am just yet but I can tell you it's my business to know everything I can about you. You need to put the gun down so we can talk."

Katniss stands her ground for a few moments until it becomes obvious that the mysterious man doesn't have any problem waiting her out and she lowers her weapon slightly.

"Good girl," the grey-eyed man mocks. "I'm here to offer you a job."

"What kind of a job?" Katniss asks suspiciously.

"I can't tell you that." The man shakes his head.

"Where is it?"

"I can't tell you that, either."

"You expect me to take a job without knowing anything about it?" Katniss scoffs.

"No. I expect you to take the job on the understanding that it will greatly help this country end the war as soon as possible," the paunchy man says gravely. "Which you seem to have a vested interest in accomplishing now that your sister may get involved."

She's stunned at the man's words and the hand holding the pistol drops to her side, careful to slide the safety back in place. Katniss has been playing with the idea of getting a job as a riveter on the shipyards in Pittsburgh but hadn't begun seriously entertaining the idea until Prim signed up for the cadet nurses. She's not sure what other type of work a stranger would show up at her house and ask her to do.

"I was already planning on trying to get a job at Dravo," Katniss replies dumbly.

"That's not the kind of work we'd need you to do," the man says matter-of-factly. "This is more."

Katniss considers the man, who she's sure must be crazy. "More what?"

"More work, more money, more important. Take your pick" The man pauses to sigh, "What we're doing is going to end the war and bring everyone home; it's critical that we get there before the other side."

Katniss thinks about Prim, Rory and Gale, wherever he is, and how this could help them. She eyes the man cautiously but she's already made up her mind. There isn't anything she wouldn't do to keep Prim safe. "How long will it take?"

"Nine months, maybe a year. Less if we're good." He sniffs, taking the flask from his breast pocket and pulling a drag.

"What's it pay?"

"Hell of a lot more than what you'd make working the yard," he dismisses.

"Why me?" she asks suspiciously.

"You remind me of someone," the man replies, dropping her stare. "You're quick and have a sharp eye, you know how to work and you're not too dumb. Most important, you have all the charm of a slug so I don't have to worry about you yammering to people about what you'll be doing."

Katniss purses her lips before shaking her head in frustration. "Well, if I'm not allowed to know what or where it is, how am I to get there?"

"We take care of that. We'll take you to the train station and provide you with a ticket. Someone on the train will tell you when to get off. There will be a car waiting for you that will take you where you need to go from there." The man rocks a little in the chair, waiting for her response.

"When am I supposed to go?" she asks hesitantly.

"First thing in the morning."

Katniss anxiously smoothes the wool crepe skirt of her borrowed dress, tugging the hem over her knees. All of her dresses are technically borrowed—she much prefers the tough wool of trousers and stiff denim jeans—but her mother has no use for frocks anymore and Haymitch, the man from Sae's had finally told her his name before shoving her into the backseat of the black Hudson that took her to the station, insisted she look presentable.

She still doesn't know what her destination is. She's smart enough to know they're heading southwest and the sleeping berth she's been provided means she'll still be on this train come nightfall.

Only a few hours have passed since they pulled out of the station in Philadelphia. She'd spent her morning packing her scant personal belongings and saying goodbye to Sae and the Hawthornes. She hadn't been allowed to tell them anything more than that she'd gotten a job with the government and needed to leave.

Sae had merely asked her if she were in some sort of trouble before muttering about re-negotiating a deal with Rooba, Seamsboro's butcher, in Katniss' absence. She'd told her to write when she could and that she'd be around if Katniss needed anything before the old woman had pulled her into a fierce hug, then letting her go.

Hazelle Hawthorne hadn't asked her many questions either. A coal miner's widow with two children to feed and two sons away at war, Hazelle had too much to worry about already without adding Katniss' troubles to the list. Katniss promised to send them some money in exchange for keeping an eye on her house and truck and took Vick out to Gale's snare lines, tediously showing him how to reset them and when to check them. They weren't going to be able to rely on her hunts anymore to pad their pantries.

She'd had to leave her bow in a hollowed tree in the woods behind her house, figuring it was safer there than an empty house, even with the Hawthorne's watching it. Haymitch had warned her that security was tight where she was going and any contraband—weapons, alcohol, cameras—would be confiscated immediately.

The car ride to Philadelphia seemed longer than usual due to the near-silence. The driver hadn't said a word, not even his name, which suited her fine, until they got to the station and he'd handed her a train ticket, "Safe travels," he'd muttered.

_What am I doing?_ Katniss thinks to herself as she watches the landscape outside the window blur by. She hadn't been able to call Prim before she'd left, not knowing what she'd say, but Haymitch had assured her she'd be able to write to her once she reaches her destination. She'd just have to be careful about what she'd write.

She wasn't the only one on the train without a clue where she was headed, that much was clear the second she got on the car. A half-dozen girls had been eyeing each other until one rather bossy brunette started asking questions. She'd done what Haymitch had told her, kept her head down and mouth shut, shutting herself in her berth quickly.

This is for Prim and Rory and Gale, she reminds herself as the door to her berth opens swiftly, revealing the bossy brunette from earlier.

"Nice boots." The young woman smirks, taking in Katniss' hunting boots. They're the only shoes Katniss' has ever needed and her mother's shoes were much too small when she'd tried them on this morning. "I'm Clove," she adds, offering Katniss a hand.

"Katniss," she returns, quickly releasing Clove's tight handshake and turning back toward the window.

"I take it you're not interested in girl talk?" Clove taunts before offering a cursory "see y'around." She closes the door behind her with a resounding click.

"Yes?" Katniss answers the tentative knock, opening her berth door. She's been up and dressed since before dawn, having snuck off the dining car quickly for breakfast to avoid further interaction with any more girls on the train.

A pretty girl with meticulously coiffed blonde hair and pale blue eyes dressed in a smart suit smiles shyly. "We're getting off at the next stop," she explains, motioning vaguely to the hall behind her as Katniss feels the train begin to slow.

"Thanks," Katniss softly offers, pulling her tattered suitcase from the shelf above her head.

The young woman hesitates before turning back to Katniss, "I'm Madge."

Katniss offers her a weak smile. "Katniss."

"Well, I just thought I'd give you a heads up. I know Clove stopped by last night but she's not exactly friendly." Madge shrugs.

"Thank you, really," Katniss replies and follows her into the hall.

"Where are you from?" Madge asks.

"Just outside Philadelphia, you?" Katniss asks, eyeing the young woman's tailored green suit and pumps.

Madge turns to her, smiling brightly. "I'm from Philadelphia, we're practically neighbors!"

"How about that?" Katniss mutters as the train pulls into the station—Knoxville, TN, she notes on a sign out the window—and stops abruptly.

"Well, I've been working in New York for the past few months but I grew up there," Madge explains before going on about the secretarial work she'd been doing before her bosses transferred her to wherever they're headed.

"Do you know where we're going?" Katniss cuts her off abruptly.

"Not anymore than you do, sorry." Madge shrugs, as she descends onto the platform below where a group of young women stands waiting. "The other girls already pumped me for information."

The humidity snakes its way through Katniss' chest as she exits the train and she gasps at the heaviness.

Clove snorts from the center of the group of women before a man approaches them all. "Ladies. There are cars waiting to take you the rest of the way."

Their car pulls up to a gate flanked by a tall, barbed-wire fence and stops. Two armed guards approach as the driver gets out speaks to them briefly, flashing a stack of paperwork.

Haymitch had mentioned the security but this looks like a fortress, a prison even. The driver slides back in the vehicle and the guards wave them on.

Katniss scoots forward on the back seat, looking from left to right at her new home. There is construction everywhere. It's not developed enough to be called a town, maybe a camp? Rows of identical prefabricated shacks and larger, white buildings shaped like boxes dot the landscape but nothing looks finished. There aren't any grasses or shrubs which Katniss knows from her time studying the lakeside in the woods back in Seamsboro accounts for the mud that permeates everything and keeping their car moving at a crawl.

"What is this place?" Madge whispers quietly beside her from the middle of the large back seat.

Their driver snorts derisively before replying, "Welcome to the Reservation." He pulls the car up to a one of the larger white buildings and turns to them. "You need to check in to work."

As the other woman in their car opens her door, Katniss notices the rest of the young women from the station as they climb out of the second vehicle. Clove sinks ankle-deep into the mud and screeches loudly.

"These shoes cost me twenty-three dollars," Madge whimpers next to her as Katniss opens their door and looks down to her own boots with a smirk.

"We'll figure it out," Katniss replies as she scans the ground around her for ripples and tests it with the toe of her boot before climbing out and settling into the mud with a satisfying splat. She calls over to Clove, who has managed to pull her fancy pump out of the mud she stands in, barefoot, "Nice shoes."

She turns back to the car, bending down to hear Madge arguing with the driver. "I'm not getting out of this car," Madge states matter-of-factly as she eyes the rest of their group's muddy shoes and ankles where they wait at the front of the administration building through the car's windshield. The driver sighs before climbing out himself and snatching Madge from the back of the vehicle, carrying her up to the building doorway.

Katniss chuckles softly before grabbing their bags from the trunk and following after them.

"Wonderful," Madge simpers as the driver deposits her on solid ground. Clove fumes as she and the other women scrub at their feet and shoes in small sinks just inside the door. "Come on, Katniss," she beckons, strolling past the frustrated women in her immaculate footwear. Katniss spares a brief glance at her boots, hastily rinsing them off and catches up to Madge at the front desk.

"These are your ID cards," a bespectacled man at the front desk explains as he thrusts two badges at each of them.

Katniss scans her badges quickly for any details. One is labeled "Townsite Resident's Pass" which Katniss assumes has information about her living quarters and the other says "Clinton Engineer Works - Y-12."

"You need to sign your paperwork now," the man says, thrusting a stack of paperwork in their hands and pointing to a row of chairs to his left.

Madge and Katniss take two chairs as the first couple of girls finish up with their shoes and approach the front desk. Katniss begins to read the paperwork in detail as she notices Madge sign with a flourish next to her.

"This is kind of old hat for me," Madge offers in reply to Katniss' questioning scowl.

Katniss turns back to the paperwork, which states that she will not "at any time disclose either orally or in writing, or otherwise, to any person except such as shall be designated in writing by the general manager of Tennessee Eastman Corporation, any knowledge or information which I may have acquired while in the employ of Tennessee Eastman Corporation, or elsewhere, or which I may hereafter acquire while in such employ, pertaining to any of said work done directly or indirectly for the United States Goverment…"

She hesitates briefly, wondering what she's ended up volunteering for and what they want from her, before she signs her name.

* * *

This is a work of fiction. Though I've done my best to create as correct a historical context for Oak Ridge during 1943-1945 as possible, details and events will be changed. Some of the characters are modeled after real historical figures. I do not profit from their stories, nor do I own The Hunger Games trilogy.

**BaronessKika** and **Sohypothetically** knock my corgi-covered socks off. None of this would be possible without their patience, wisdom and cheerleading.

I'm very excited about this idea and I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can also find me on Tumblr, my URL is Walker.


End file.
